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Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Feeling vulnerable

Last Sunday I took part in the Outlaw Half triathlon in Nottingham. The weather was better than it has been for ages, blue skies, hot weather. A perfect summer day.
Of course when you are spending 4 hours cycling in bike shorts and you haven't applied suncream to your legs, are fair skinned then there's a very good chance that you are going to end up with sunburn. My legs were a lovely shade of red from where my shorts ended to where my cycling socks started.

Normally when I go to work I wear tights, regardless of whether I'm wearing a skirt, dress or trousers. With sore legs that's just not possible. So this week for the first time I've gone into work without tights. In fact to try and make things easier on my legs I've even worn skirts with bare legs.

Over the last few days I've been aware of the bare legs under my skirts. Today as I was driving to work something that had been slowly sneaking up on me over the last 3 days finally dawned on me.

With no tights on, the only thing that was between what I have between my legs and the outside world is the material of my underwear. This morning I was painfully aware of just how little that actually is.

We've all heard how guys wanted to get into girls knickers, well this morning I realised just how little protection they provide us. It made me realise just how vulnerable we are if someone wanted to take advantage of us. I realised just how vulnerable women can feel, especially during summer time when the weather and fashion can mean that we wear items of clothing that really don't offer us much protection if someone wanted to take advantage of us.

Shorts and trousers, even a pair of tights afford us with more protection simply because they deny easy access to parts of our bodies.

When I lived as a male I never experienced that sort of sensation or sense of being vulnerable because the clothes I wore provided me with a degree of protection, as did the fact that I was seen as a male.

Living as a female I'm beginning to understand just how vulnerable we can be.

Perhaps I should invest in some protection like these chaps are wearing